At the heart of a far-off galaxy, a supermassive black hole appears to have had a case of the hiccups. Astronomers from MIT, Italy, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere have found that a previously quiet black hole, which sits at the center of a galaxy about 800 million light years away, has suddenly erupted, giving […]
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Scientist Expects Voyager Spacecraft To Last A Billion Years
Almost five decades after its launch, the Voyager spacecraft, led by scientist Alan Cummings, is expected to endure for another billion years, according to Cummings. Having joined the Voyager mission in 1973 as a graduate student, Cummings has witnessed the program’s evolution from over 300 personnel to fewer than a dozen, emphasizing the longevity and […]
Read MoreThree MIT alumni graduate from NASA astronaut training
“It’s been a wild ride,” says Christopher Williams PhD ’12, moments after he received his astronaut pin, signifying graduation into the NASA astronaut corps. Williams, along with Marcos Berríos ’06 and Christina “Chris” Birch PhD ’15, were among the 12-member class of astronaut candidates to graduate from basic training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, […]
Read MoreNew exhibits showcase trailblazing MIT women
This spring, two new exhibits on campus are shining a light on the critical contributions of pathbreaking women at the Institute. They are part of MIT Libraries’ Women@MIT Archival Initiative in the Department of Distinctive Collections. Launched in 2017, the initiative not only adds to the historical record by collecting and preserving the papers of […]
Read MoreStudy determines the original orientations of rocks drilled on Mars
As it trundles around an ancient lakebed on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is assembling a one-of-a-kind rock collection. The car-sized explorer is methodically drilling into the Red Planet’s surface and pulling out cores of bedrock that it’s storing in sturdy titanium tubes. Scientists hope to one day return the tubes to Earth and analyze their […]
Read MoreFor all humankind
Can a government promote morality? How much trust should people place in their government? Such fundamental questions of political philosophy and ethics intrigue Leela Fredlund, a senior majoring in political science and physics. She has parsed these topics in ancient Greek texts, interrogated them in formal classroom recitations, and debated them informally with student friends. […]
Read MoreProfessor Emeritus Igor Paul, an expert in product design and safety, dies at 87
Professor Emeritus Igor Paul ’60, SM ’61, PhD ’64, an influential professor of mechanical engineering, passed away on Dec. 17, 2023 at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was 87. Paul was a member of the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty from 1964 until his retirement in 2003, and helped to develop the […]
Read MoreAstronomers spot 18 black holes gobbling up nearby stars
Star-shredding black holes are everywhere in the sky if you just know how to look for them. That’s one message from a new study by MIT scientists, appearing today in the Astrophysical Journal. The study’s authors are reporting the discovery of 18 new tidal disruption events (TDEs) — extreme instances when a nearby star is […]
Read MoreNew Discovery ‘Keeps Hope Alive’ to Find Signs of Life on Mars, Scientists Say
Image: NASA via Getty Images ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. The latest scans of the Martian Jezero crater by NASA’s Perseverance rover have confirmed what scientists previously suspected—that there was once an ancient lake there. The findings offer renewed hope that we might find traces of life in […]
Read MoreMars helicopter borked, broken, an ex-helicopter, now abandoned and alone
Space fans prepare yourselves, for I have some sad news: NASA’s Mars-based helicopter, Ingenuity, has flown its last, thanks to a broken rotor blade. It is now an ex-helicopter, or if you prefer, the little space helicopter that no longer could. Pour one out for a true original, and give mad respect to the first […]
Read MoreResearchers release open-source space debris model
MIT’s Astrodynamics, Space Robotics, and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab) announced the public beta release of the MIT Orbital Capacity Assessment Tool (MOCAT) during the 2023 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Space Forum Workshop on Dec. 14. MOCAT enables users to model the long-term future space environment to understand growth in space debris and assess […]
Read MoreA carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets, MIT study finds
Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere say that astronomers’ best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence, rather than the presence, of a chemical feature in their atmospheres. The researchers propose that if a terrestrial planet has substantially less carbon dioxide in […]
Read MoreNASA creates cat meme history with a space laser blasting a clip of Taters over 30 million kilometres
NASA has demonstrated a successful transmission of a high-definition video from a probe over 30 million kilometres away in space. Instead of using the traditional method of radio waves, the system onboard asteroid-probe Psyche utilises a powerful near-infrared laser beam. Rather than showing us the unnerving splendour of the empty void, engineers chose a 15-second […]
Read MoreHow to be an astronaut
The first question a student asked Warren “Woody” Hoburg ’08 during his visit to MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) this November was: “It seems like there’s no real way to know if being an astronaut is something you could really do. Are there any activities we can try out and see if astronaut-related […]
Read MoreNASA astronaut will celebrate Hanukkah in space with felt menorah
A NASA astronaut will “light” felt candles to celebrate Hanukkah in space. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli plans to conduct the traditional lighting of the menorah in felt, given that the agency and International Space Station (ISS) wisely have restrictions against using fire aboard a spacecraft. The lighting will be done during Hanukkah, the Jewish festival […]
Read MoreThe ISS just turned 25, and NASA is getting ready for the end (video)
The space station turned 25 years old on Wednesday (Dec. 6), and NASA is preparing for the pioneering outpost’s end. The agency just celebrated the milestone mission that docked the first two International Space Station (ISS) modules on Dec. 6, 1998. In the runup to that event, NASA updated its private proposal request to help […]
Read MoreSpaceX’s next Starship launch could feature key refueling test
The third flight of SpaceX’s giant Starship vehicle may be considerably more ambitious and complex than the first two. The coming mission could involve a refueling test, according to a recent presentation by Lakiesha Hawkins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Moon to Mars program office. Hawkins spoke on Monday (Dec. 4) about the agency’s infrastructure […]
Read MoreISS astronauts find tomato that was lost in space for 8 months (video)
A foodie space mystery has finally been solved. The remains of a tiny tomato lost by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio after an off-Earth harvest in March finally showed up on the International Space Station (ISS), nearly eight months later. “Our good friend Frank Rubio, who headed home [already], has been blamed for quite a while […]
Read MoreSolid rocket boosters for shuttle Endeavour exhibit capped with nose cones
The work to stand up two rockets for the launchpad-like exhibit of NASA’s retired space shuttle Endeavour has been capped — literally and figuratively — with the addition of two nose cones. As the California Science Center prepares to take Endeavour off public display for the next few years, the first major components for the […]
Read MoreWatch live as astronauts on the ISS celebrate the station’s 25th anniversary today (video)
Astronauts on the International Space Station will celebrate 25 years of their vehicle in orbit on Wednesday (Dec. 6), and you can watch the event live. The six astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 70 crew will mark the 25th anniversary of the Russian Zarya and U.S. Unity modules meeting up Dec. 6, […]
Read MoreNASA’s Psyche spacecraft finds its ‘first light’ while zooming to a metal asteroid (image)
It was a big day for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft on Dec. 4, the day the probe finally opened its eyes to the universe. Since launching atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Oct. 13 — the first interplanetary mission for the Heavy, in fact — Psyche has been essentially traveling the cosmos in darkness, as […]
Read MoreSatellite map of North America’s largest glacier shows ‘hidden lagoon’ and other secrets
NASA has released a trippy, technicolor satellite photo of Alaska’s Malaspina Glacier, which makes the massive ice mass look like a fiery, rippling blob of paint. The new image highlights recent discoveries at the glacier, including a “hidden lagoon.” The glacier, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on the state’s southeastern coast, covers around 1,680 square […]
Read MoreNASA to train Indian astronauts for a week-long trip to ISS in 2024
NASA will have a hand in training two Indian astronauts, one of whom will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) late next year, agency administrator Bill Nelson told reporters on Tuesday (Nov. 28). Nelson is currently on a week-long, multi-city visit to India to meet politicians and space agency officials in an attempt to […]
Read MoreNASA’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter Captures First-Ever Views of Mars From ISS Perspective
Scientists have achieved a groundbreaking feat by capturing the first-ever views of Mars from a perspective replicating what an astronaut would see from the International Space Station (ISS). NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter, tasked with preparing for future human missions to Mars, took a series of panoramic images in May from an altitude of approximately 250 […]
Read MoreArtemis 2 moon astronauts autograph their own rocket 1 year before launch
The next four moon astronauts signed their names Monday (Nov. 27) on a rocket piece that will send them to lunar realms in late 2024, only one year from now. The Artemis 2 crew, amid moon training, put their signatures on the adapter for their Orion spacecraft, which will be mounted on top of the […]
Read MoreMIT’s Science Policy Initiative holds 13th annual Executive Visit Days
From Oct. 23-24, a delegation consisting of 21 MIT students, one MIT postdoc, and four students from the University of the District of Columbia met in Washington for the MIT Science Policy Initiative’s Executive Visit Days (ExVD). Now in its 13th cycle, this trip offers a platform where university students and young researchers can connect […]
Read MoreNASA astronaut celebrates Thanksgiving on ISS with turkey socks, Earth views
A NASA astronaut’s feet cosplayed as a turkey in space. NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara received new turkey socks for U.S. Thanksgiving on the International Space Station (ISS). She then spent a part of her day off in orbit on Thursday (Nov. 23) showing off the turkey feet at various points around the 356-foot (109-meter) complex. […]
Read MoreInside ‘Earthrise’: A historian’s take on the origins of the Apollo 8 ‘image of the century’
The recent death of Frank Borman, commander of Nasa’s Apollo 8 mission in 1968, has focused attention on that incredible first voyage to the Moon. It took place eight months before Apollo 11, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the lunar surface for the first time. However, the impact of Apollo 8’s “Earthrise” picture — the sight […]
Read MoreNASA’s Psyche Spacecraft Laser Milestone: 16 Million Kilometers Away
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has achieved a groundbreaking feat by beaming a laser-encoded message to Earth from a distance of approximately 16 million kilometers, marking the farthest-ever demonstration of optical communication in deep space. The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment, riding along with Psyche on its way to the asteroid Psyche, successfully transmitted a near-infrared […]
Read MoreCanada assigns astronauts to launch on Boeing’s Starliner, back up Artemis 2 moon mission
MONTREAL, Quebec – The Canadian Space Agency announced two astronauts will fly to space in the coming years on Wednesday (Nov. 22) as the country continues a historic ramp-up of its human space program in 2023. François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry of Canada, announced the assignments in front of a crowd […]
Read MoreNASA’s Psyche spacecraft just fired a laser 10 million miles away in deep space
A NASA laser just fired successfully in a deep-space test. On Nov. 14, NASA picked up a laser signal fired from an instrument that launched with the Psyche spacecraft, which is currently more than 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) from Earth and heading toward a mysterious metal asteroid. (The spacecraft is at more than […]
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